The military shooter Battlefield 2042 was hotly anticipated in November 2021. It was supposed to stand up to the dominant “Call of Duty” and bring EA back to the front. But the shooter failed with critics and fans and is considered a catastrophic flop. The new head of DICE, Rebecka Coutaz, has now spoken about the disappointing release and the plans to get the shooter back on track.

This was the situation before the release:

• Battfield 1 was a success for DICE in 2016, the shooter set in the First World War. On Metacritc, the title received an outstanding 88% (PC).
• Battlefield V was released in 2018, and its main goal was to give players more character customization options. Although the shooter received a respectable 81% from testers, controversy caused a negative reaction from regular players: they found it unrealistic how Battfield V portrayed female fighters. To this, EA responded in a combative manner. It said, “Live with it or don’t play it.”
• After Battfield V, there was a pause in the series to regroup. In the meantime, the eternal competitor Call of Duty became the dominant military shooter with “Warzone”. The increased by 300-1000% from 2019 to 2020, exactly in the break of Battlefield.

In 2 minutes we explain the most important things about Battlefield 2042:

Battlefield 2042 flops – disappointment turns to gloating and malice

This is how Battlefield 2042 arrived then: In November 202, Battlefield 2042 was released: set in the near future, it aimed to revitalize the Battlefield series with some radical innovations and regain lost trust. In many ways, EA apparently also wanted to catch up with Call of Duty: Warzone:

The criticism of Battlefield 2042 swung into bitter gloating and mockery – especially when a developer complained about the disappointed fans and their supposedly too high expectations.

We took an in-depth look at Battlefield’s difficult situation in a MeinMMO podcast:

Who is the new boss? In December 2021, EA announced that they were bringing in a new leadership team to get Battlefield back on track. For example, they installed Vince Zampella as boss: He earned his spurs at Call of Duty and is considered responsible for the surprisingly great success of Apex Legends, which has since replaced Battlefield as EA’s leading shooter.

In Stockholm, Sweden’s Rebecka Coutaz has been appointed as general manager at EA DICE. She previously headed a Ubisoft studio in Annecy: There, in France, they worked on games like The Division or Rider’s Republic.

The team has put years of their lives into Battlefield 2042

Here’s what the new studio head is saying now: In an interview with Eurogamer Coutaz now says to the leek:

Everyone was disappointed – our community, our players, and also our team: it’s the team that put years of their lives into the game. And then for this game to not meet the expectations of the players and the team was tough. We’re moving forward now and we’ve done a lot of things since then.

What has Coutaz done in her first months? The first thing to do was to take a step back and look at what was working and what was not. What did you have? What could you build on?

This analysis took the team about 2 months. Since then, they have changed structures, tools, and processes in development to get ready to make Batteflield 2042 a great game after all.

One of the problems identified was working from home: It’s just different and it took time to adjust. In addition, they had lost 4 important key developers in leading positions and had to fill these gaps:

The first thing I did was put together a leadership team that would work with me to run the studio and then I would say I moved Battlefield 2042 to a live operation because we were set up to get a game ready for launch. That’s just the beginning of the journey.

Boss is convinced: “The quality is there”

Overall, the new boss believes that they are now just at the beginning of the process of making Battlefield 2042 a better game, but sees herself and her team on the right track:

We’ve put out a number of patches. Every patch has been a win for us. And of course – Season One is also a win for us. The quality is there. And now we’re going forward until we’re fully into Battlefield 2042.

How can you disappoint your community so much on your 20th anniversary?

Couataz states that EA, the leadership team, and themselves would be fully behind the game series. It’s a very rewarding task, she says, and a lot of fun, too. Her experience at Ubisoft working with multiple studios on one title, she says, is helping her now make Battlefield a better game:

We’re doing everything we can, and I can tell you: it gives me goosebumps. The heart of the team is there. We were so disappointed. And we were so disappointed that our players were disappointed. You know, this was our 20th anniversary. How can you disappoint your community on the 20th anniversary like that? We’re there and we want to make it a great gaming experience.

Transition from launch to live a test for many studios

Here’s what’s behind it: Excitingly, Coutaz says that one of the first things she wants to do is transform Battlefield from a “game that was ready for launch” to a game that is “developed live.”

That’s the move MMO studios have to make once they release a game: That’s when they move from the “launch” phase to the “live” phase. Suddenly you have players complaining about bugs, wanting balance changes, or wanting more mechanics in the end game. It’s a completely different development whether you’re working behind closed doors or live on a game that’s already being played by thousands of people at that moment.

We know from the past that some studios like Bungie have taken years to make that move and build a “live team.”

However, some teams, such as Carbine (“WildStar”), never managed to take this step.

We’ll see how this develops at DICE now.

MyMMO expert for Battlefield, Marko Jevtic, has already looked at – Season 1 before release:

Battlefield 2042: I played the new – Season 1 in advance – What you can expect soon